1. Field
The subject matter of this disclosure relates to data networks. In particular, this disclosure relates to systems and methods of receiving inputs to an application process through a communication network.
2. Information
Services are typically provided over the Internet at a server platform by receiving inputs for server based applications from client processes. For the inputs to be valid, the inputs typically must conform to constraints. For example, an application receiving text based inputs typically require that the inputs conform to a particular alphanumeric format. This is particularly common in applications which receive inputs from a network browser through a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) server.
An HTTP server typically transmits hypertext markup language (HTML) pages to a network browser hosted on a client device for receiving inputs to a server application. The HTML pages may provide an entry form which is generated on a graphical user interface (GUI) of the client device for prompting a user to provide textual inputs to be transmitted back to the HTTP server. Upon receipt of the inputs, the HTTP server may execute logic to determine whether the received inputs are valid. The HTTP server may provide validated inputs to the server application and respond to invalid inputs by transmitting an error message back to the network browser.
Repeated transmission of invalid inputs to the HTTP server and corresponding error messages back to the network browser is a time consuming activity which uses communication resources. To reduce the need to transmit data between the HTTP server and the network browser in the process of providing valid inputs to the server application, the HTML page transmitted to the network browser may include an encoded script to validate the inputs at the network browser prior to sending any inputs to the HTTP server. This ensures that only valid inputs are received at the HTTP server.
A server application may be adapted to receive user inputs from external processes through other communication interfaces in addition to an HTTP server. Like inputs provided through the HTTP server, the inputs provided through the other communication interfaces are typically validated before being provided to the application. Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method of validating inputs to the server application according to consistent validation criteria regardless of the method of providing the inputs to the server application.